Starring Katherine Heigl as Jane Nichols, James Marsden as Kevin Doyle (the guy Jane ends up with) and Edward Burns as George (Jane's boss).27 Dresses puts forth a stunningly shallow portrayal of marriage. Kevin goes so far as to compare it to the Easter bunny. According to this 27 Dresses (in accordance with the rest of Hollywood), marriage exists to make people feel good.

Sometimes I wonder, why go through all the pomp of getting married if two people are already sleeping together? Is it like an extra-special announcement that the two people really really like each other? If the couple was going steady before, does this mean they're going extra steady now that they're married? In the average dating scenario, where the two people have already moved into the same house, what's left to promise to each other?

The short answer: Unless people get married God's way there is nothing sacred about it. This makes sense in light of the fact that God invented marriage. Consider the traditional white dress that the bride wears. White represents purity... not only sexual purity, but that has a lot to do with it. The whole ceremony exists because Jesus Christ saved and purified His church. In other words, there's a lot more to it than two people who won't be lonely anymore because they're making an extra special promise that makes it a little more difficult to break up than if they were just dating.

27 Dresses has a kissing scene that mirrors a similarly silly scene in P.S. I Love You. Katherine Heigl and Edward Burns kissed just for kicks and, much to their relief, they didn't "feel anything." So also Hillary Swank and Harry Connick Jr. knew that they weren't meant to be because they kissed one time and there wasn't any fireworks or electricity or parades marching around them celebrating their romanticalness. The myth propagated here is: "If the shoe fits, wear it (but you can't know the shoe fits unless you try wearing it first)." I refer to these kissing scenes not because kissing is evil, but because people use this "shoe fitting" mentality to justify having sex with whomever they please. That and also it feels good.

3 comments:

I've had fun reading your commentaries on various movies! Thanks for stopping by my site!

Good points on this one, also ones that I had a problem with in this movie.I thought it'd be a cute, fun movie that I could relate to being a bridesmaid so many dang times. But they always have to throw some in unrealistic and/or immoral behavior that cheapens the love story.

Just watched this with my wife tonight. While it was entertaining, it simply reinforces our culture's strange obsession with the wedding ceremony over the strength of the actual marriage. Kevin tells Jane something to the effect that she doesn't want a marriage, she wants a wedding. And neither she nor her story really prove him wrong. Girls eat this stuff up all day long in books, magazines, movies and TV, and it gets regurgitated as the $86 billion wedding industry and a warped, fragmented view of marriage with a divorce rate to match.

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